July, 26. 1998.

Everyone was shocked to see James, he was a bit dirty, and his right eye was infected, but otherwise alright. We asked him for his story, and he said it was quite the long and gruesome tale.

James' Story:

He was here at Wellsworth with a passenger train when suddenly, a plane dropped the mist above the station! James quickly yelled for the passengers to get on board as his crew ran back to his cab from being in the station! The guard blew the whistle, and James took off with his wheels screeching against the rails! It took a minute to get up to speed with the rough start, but he managed; he climbed Gordon's hill furiously! After he made it to the top, he started coughing really badly as he felt a bad pain in his eye. He raced down the hill at a tremendous rate! 

James then yelled to his crew that the pain was too much and he had to shut his eyes, so his crew had to pay extra attention to the rails in front of them. They raced through Maron, and over the big dipper; just as he passed Abbey, they saw Henry with a goods train heading the other way! James opened his eyes for a second as they whistled to each other, and shut his eyes again as they continued on. His crew realized they were approaching Killdane, and figured that was their best bet, and charged on even faster! They quickly entered the yard, and shunted the coaches into a siding before quickly entering a shed. After coming to a stop and shutting the door, James then noticed his eye was partially infected, he was very upset. As James was in the shed, he saw some unusual activity going on outside. The next day, he saw Murdoch and Charlie being dragged into the yard by what looked to be, D261?

Around 20 minutes later, he heard what sounded like Murdoch screaming in pain; followed by Charlie screaming in pure terror! James then watched as Murdoch slowly left the yards, as some sort of monster. He made sure to stay as quiet as possible as to not alert him. About 10 minutes later, he saw some men climb into a works unit coach as D261 pulled them out of the yard heading down the mainline. 

James stayed in the shed for about 30 more minutes before leaving to see if Charlie was alright, but as he rounded a bend to the deepest part of the yard, he and his crew were horrified! There was Charlie's corpse; his eyes and mouth were all red and he looked like he was crying blood, James felt guilty that he didn't try to help him. Just then, James' driver (Charles) noticed something on the ground, it was a needle. He picked it up, and noticed it had some weird glowing red liquid in it; he decided to hang onto it just incase. After that was sorted, James left the yard, and started making his way down the line. He had to go slowly as he was pushing his train in reverse due to the turntable being out of order.

They decided to check the Peel Godred Branch; after the points were switched, they started down the branch. Just after they passed over Neville's bridge, they were already met with a tragic sight. There was Paxton with a train of fuel, smashed head first into a line of vans on a siding; he was also infected which was wasn't surprising. They all felt bad for the diesel as they left.

Soon enough, they arrived at Hawin Lake. After his crew searched the station, they couldn't find Old Bailey anywhere. Just then, they all heard the sound of a horn, which was shortly followed by Bear racing past with a train of flatbeds! James whistled for him to stop, but to no avail; James sadly puffed away towards the Ironworks.

James and his crew soon arrived, and it was silent; they slowly made their way through the area. They soon made it to the main smelting shed, and there was Diesel 10, Arry, and Bert. They didn't have much of a reaction to seeing James, and James didn't say much either. Bert asked if James had seen Bear, and he then told them what they saw at Hawin Lake. After staying there for a few hours with little to nothing from the diesels, they decided it best to leave.

They made their way down to Maron where they set up camp, and after spending the next day at Maron, they decided to continue up the mainline towards Knapford. After James was fired up, they started their way towards Knapford, but they wouldn't get far. They pulled up to the junction that would take them down the loop to Lower Suddery, as they were about to leave, they suddenly froze as they heard the sound of slow deep puffing coming towards them. Just then, Murdoch puffed up the hill, and came to a stop next to James! James blew his whistle in terror, and sped away as quick as he could as Murdoch gave chase!

James and his crew raced down the line as fast as James could go; but as they charged up Gordon's hill, they noticed Murdoch was catching up fast! Thankfully going down the hill made it easier to get up to speed which helped them get quite the distance from Murdoch. It didn't take long until they were approaching Wellsworth; James was suddenly diverted into the yard! He slammed on his brakes as he came to a halt in front of Thomas! Thomas was shocked to see him, but James told him to shut it; Thomas was about to retort when Murdoch raced by heading towards Crosby.

James and his breathed a sigh of relief as Thomas immediately apologized but James said it didn't matter; all that mattered was that he was safe, and Thomas smiled warmly at his old friend. After that, James went to rest in the back of the yard while his crew went to rest in the nearby workmen's hut.

We couldn't believe what he and his crew had been through, and we now knew how Murdoch became the beast he is now; god I hope we don't run into Murdoch for a while, as I've had enough of that "thing" to last a lifetime. I'm gonna sign off for today, hopefully tomorrow will go a bit better, mind you, I don't even know what we have planned for tomorrow.